Different Views On Gun Control

WASHINGTON, D.C. (WUSA) --- Shortly after the White House lowered its flags to half staff in honor of those killed in Friday's Connecticut school shootings, advocates of stronger gun controls rallied in the shadow of the flags on Pennsyalvania Avenue to urge that President Obama become more actively involved in advocating strong gun control legislation.

"We know that the president cares deeply about preventing gun violence but we need him to take action," said Andy Pelosi of the group Gun Free Kids.

"Expressing condolences, visiting the families, is just the first step. We've got to work on the policies and that's what we want him to do, we want him to address that in his second term," Pelosi said.

Larry Pratt, the Executive Director of Gun Owners of America, believes it is the gun control advocates who have responsibility for the Friday shootings.

"I would say there's blood on their hands becauser they were the ones that supported the gun free zones that are the law in almost every state of our country around schools. They're the ones with their support of gun free zones," he said.

"In the last 20 years, every single mass murder of five people or more has taken place in a gun free zone. Now, at some point we've got to ask is there a better way," Pratt told 9News Now.

"Almost never does a mass murder occur in our countrey outside of a gun free zone. Murderers seem to have it figured out. They might be evil but they're not flat stupid, so if they want to have, for whatever perverse reason, have a large body count, go to a school, or go to an Oregon mall where the guy didn't killl but two people, but that's bevcause his gun jammed, not because he wasn't trying," he said.

Pratt believes school teachers, administrators, and parents should be allowed to carry guns in schools so that they might act against an attacker.

"Once somebody is in a public place and they have a gun other than in their holster, then people are going to be on alert and if they see that the gun is being pointed at somebody, out comes their own gun, and maybe they can take care of business in time. If they dont have a gun, they can't do anything," Pratt said.